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I wonder what happens if you find one of these rediffusion wall boxes still connected and somehow manage to connect it to a TV. What will it do? Didn't they used to work on VHF? The 21" CRT TV in my room has VHF on it but i cant find anything on that. If i could get something using VHF on it, what would i have to connect it to?

I'm sorry to say that you are toatlly wrong.
I worked for Rediffusion , first as an apprenticd tv tech and then as an "equipment " engineer. The distribution (on a real Redif network) was at H,F using two Tete beche frequencies of 5.9 and 8.9 Mhz.

The signals were distributed over multipair cables at HF and Audio . The service ran from before ww2 (radio) up to the mid 8o's when the whole syaytem folded.
I can wax lyrical about the whole service (with pics) if anyone is interested.
Very happy times.

It's interesting to see this revived thread, especially since I presented on one of the services that was carried on Rediffusion Cablevision.

Back in early 84 I was commentating for a small sports video company that mainly covered speedway, ice hockey, basketball and a bit of football.

One day I was told that we'd got a deal with a new sports channel called Screen Sport that was launching on Rediffusion in April of 84.

As reported by previous contributors Rediffusion had decided to provide aerials to subscribers to receive the four network TV channels with four new services being put through the cable instead. One was Screen Sport, another Music Box, a third was a film channel called Premiere and the fourth a general entertainment service called Sky Channel.

Screen Sport broadcast from a facilities company in Knutsford, Cheshire called Media Communications and shortly after launch I was invited to host a weekly programme there on speedway.

It was soon obvious though that the audience was limited - we were given lengthy lists of towns in which we could be received but it soo became apparent that we were only talking about limited parts of those towns, generally newer estates.

Hopes were pinned on the wider cable network developing but despite franchises being awarded progress was painfully slow.

Direct satellite reception from Intelsat could be made but it needed large expensive dishes so we were very muich in Rediffusion's hands and it was clear their sector of the market wasn't going to expand.

By 1986 Screen Sport's owners, a conglomerate of US stations including ESPN had given up hope and the station was off-loaded to W.H.Smith who held on until the launch of the Sky/Astra system in 1989 at which point they could get access to a potentially mass market.

Smiths cut-back on home-produced material though back in 86, opting for the use of cheaper US material that had already covered its costs in its home market and could be 'dumped' into Europe at a low marginal cost. I saw the warning signs and got out though alythough I often wonder what might have happened if I could have held on for a few more years until the Astra launch.

At the time I lived a long way from a Rediffusion network so I rarely got the chance to watch my own rtecorded programmes - until one day I was covering a speedway meeting at Eastbourne and one of the fans offered to let me watch our 'match of the week' on his TV in Hastings.

I took him up on his offer and watched my efforts while he went to pick up his wife from work. On bringing her home I could hear the comment "You'll never believe who's in the living room.."

So for a few years Rediffusion was a big part of my life sixteen years after I'd watched their star disappear from my parents' TV back in 1968 as Redvers Kyle thanked us for watching and wished Thames Television the best for the future.

Rediffusion actually had connections back to the days of electric tramcars, and later buses for the parent company B.E.T.s acronym stood for British Electric Traction, a pioneering tramway company of the late 19th century. It was suggested to me that some of the old underground electrfical feeder ducts were adaprted to carry the TV and radio service.

not showing my age:eek: but as a child in the late 40s rediffusion was all the rage at a relations home in Tunstall Stoke on Trent, this magic cable box replaced radios that were
powered by accumulators, you took these glassbatteries to a local radio shop to be charged up, I forget what the charge was for rediffusion, probably 6d a week?
I recall, light/home/lux and its own channel.

I went on hols to Jersey in 1966, stayed at the Palace hotel
every room had a rediffusion speaker.

I once lived in an area served by Rediffusion although not many people used it in the late 60s there. They only supplied radio to that area, no television.

I recall their workmen in the street one day, to remove the cables. I suspect this was because it wasn't profitable but local people were told it was because the cables were causing interference to television reception. As this system was a large audio amplifier driving loudpeakers, I don't see how that's possible.

I once saw a variant of this in a village on the continent. The main street had loudpeakers installed on the front walls of houses. It was used every morning for about 10 minutes to broadcast news of local events. As the village had a very good "bush telegraph" (everyone knew everyone else), I'm not sure if they learned anything from it that they didn't already know.

I lived near the River Hull in the centre of the city, and often the sound on the tv would be interupted for a "Reddifusion Announcement" usually a warning that the river was in danger of overflowing its banks which it was prone to in those days before the construction of the Tidal Barrier.

We had Rediffusion in the 60s in Newton Aycliffe. It was (still is?) a New Town and had restrictive covenants which stopped people having aerials.

During the time of changeover from 405 lines to 625 lines there were separate channels for the 405 and 625 line versions of BBC1 (and maybe Tyne Tees?) for people who still had 405-line TVs. The channel line-up as I recall was:

Later we got Aycliffe Community Radio (opened by Prince Charles, no less) in the days before ILR.

Rediffusion's "town" HQ was a building called "Aerial House", on one of the higher parts of the town. I think it's still there.

We never tried to record the video but we found we were able to put a couple of crocodile clips on the output from the AF transformer and record the sound ...... ! Favourites were bits off Top Of The Pops and some comedy shows.

I don't remember there ever being talk of additional channels, just the main 3 (4 if you count Yorkshire).

The decline of the system is well documented so I won't go into great detail but at the time we did thought some of our neighbours were attaching "unauthorised devices" to the line and affecting the signal. In retrospect, it's just as likely that water got in the system, components failed etc.

The last straw came with the advent of affordable video recorders, which of course we couldn't use. People started putting up aerials and instead of the great ugly eyesores we had been told to shun, they were tiny little 8-element jobbies as we turned out to be in the primary reception area for Bilsdale. The council were unable to enforce the restrictive covenants due to the cost as well as lack of public support, and the whole system collapsed, in about 1985 IIRC.

Rediffusion was also present in Oxford - I believe it was firstly set up to help those who couldn't get tv through their aerial either due to their location outright, or in one part of the town whenever the gasometer was full (the thing would raise, cutting off their reception of the Oxford transmitter situated on Beckley hill)

My father, a retired television repairman, would remember more - I'll ask him when we next speak.

I do remember visiting houses in Oxford with my dad that had those switches on the wall, and later some kind of receiver box. I remember thinking that multi-channel television was the future after seeing Music Box

If anyone knows the Oxford area I believe the cable company, later ComTel, had a base in Headington - behind the 24h store which used to be called 7-Eleven. I remember their satellite dishes & the complete mess ComTel made of the pavements when they rolled-out cable to more houses.

Edit - sorry Ozsat, I should have read your post before jumping in re: the location!

I'm 40 and we had Rediffusion at home in Birkenhead on the Wirral. The TV was a Black & White set with doors on it that you closed over the screen when just listening to the radio and it had a rotary dial on the Window frame. I can't remember too much about what we received as we then got a colour set with an aerial probably around 1977. I also remember in school we had big Rediffusion radio sets in the assembly hall, they seemed like flat Metre Square pieces of wood with a mesh speaker in the middle, we used to listen to Morning Services for Schools on Radio 4!.

The headend was in Elm Street which had an enormous antenna with a bright yellow Rediffusion logo at the top that you could see for miles but this was taken down and replaced by two huge satellite dishes when Cablevision was piped through in the early eighties. Unfortunately by that time the connection in our house was no longer live but my sister had it and I was so jealous, she had Sky Channel with loads of music and old US programmes, Music Box and I just remember Diddy David Hamilton on Lifestyle. She kept the service right through until the BSB channels replaced all the old stuff but she wasn't impressed and got shut of it. The cables and manhole covers however are still very visible in many parts of the area.

In Livingston New Town the cable service was provided by British Relay, BBC 1, BBC 1 and ITV, and Radio 1,2,3 &4. All houses were pre-wired as aerials were not allowed in the town.

I recall that some Rediffusion areas carried Caroline on their radio system until it was pointed out by HM Ministry for Spoiling Folks' Enjoyment that this was in fact illegal, as it was a 'foreign' station which could not be carried under the terms of their licence.

As regards community radio, I made enquiries about running a service on British Relay. The 'official' reply was that as there was no such licence for this service, one couldn't be granted!

I also remember in school we had big Rediffusion radio sets in the assembly hall, they seemed like flat Metre Square pieces of wood with a mesh speaker in the middle, we used to listen to Morning Services for Schools on Radio 4

I remember those!! My school listened to Morning Service, "Time & Tune" & "Singing Together" on them. We'd all have little books with the words in, so we could all sing along

I'm 40 and we had Rediffusion at home in Birkenhead on the Wirral. The TV was a Black & White set with doors on it that you closed over the screen when just listening to the radio and it had a rotary dial on the Window frame. I can't remember too much about what we received as we then got a colour set with an aerial probably around 1977. I also remember in school we had big Rediffusion radio sets in the assembly hall, they seemed like flat Metre Square pieces of wood with a mesh speaker in the middle, we used to listen to Morning Services for Schools on Radio 4!.

The headend was in Elm Street which had an enormous antenna with a bright yellow Rediffusion logo at the top that you could see for miles but this was taken down and replaced by two huge satellite dishes when Cablevision was piped through in the early eighties. Unfortunately by that time the connection in our house was no longer live but my sister had it and I was so jealous, she had Sky Channel with loads of music and old US programmes, Music Box and I just remember Diddy David Hamilton on Lifestyle. She kept the service right through until the BSB channels replaced all the old stuff but she wasn't impressed and got shut of it. The cables and manhole covers however are still very visible in many parts of the area.

I've a funny feeling they were made by GE (General Electric/GEC??). Could be wrong though....:)

GE are a large American electrical & electronics company, completely separate to the (British owned) GEC.
GEC and Marconi were effectively the same company (who owned who, I don't know). The GEC brand name did appear on consumer electronics in the 60s (eg TV sets, radios) but brown goods bore the Marconi name after about (IIRC) 1970.

So if the speakers were dated from the 60s, it's quite possible they were made by GEC.

GE are a large American electrical & electronics company, completely separate to the (British owned) GEC.
GEC and Marconi were effectively the same company (who owned who, I don't know). The GEC brand name did appear on consumer electronics in the 60s (eg TV sets, radios) but brown goods bore the Marconi name after about (IIRC) 1970.

So if the speakers were dated from the 60s, it's quite possible they were made by GEC.